Company profile
- Industry
- Consumer electronics retail
- Founded
- 1949
- Headquarters
- Richmond, United States
Profiles are auto-generated and infrequently updated.
Decisions on record
3 verified Decision Records on Circuit City, and the casebook each one belongs to.
| Fork date | Decision type | The story | Casebook |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Culture Doctrine | Read the story → | Culture Doctrine Casebook → |
| 2007 | The Fall | Read the story → | The Fall Casebook → |
| 2007 | The Fall | Read the story → | The Fall Casebook → |
Run one of these yourself
The decisions Circuit City faced, as kits you can run.
Each pack takes one of these decisions and gives you the framework, a deck for the room, a model that resolves to one number, and the sourced cases behind it. $499, one-time.
The analyses
The Culture Doctrine · People & Control
Circuit City Fired Its Best People to Save Money. The Discipline Was Real. So Was the Suicide.
In March 2007, Circuit City fired 3,400 workers for the crime of being paid too well, then invited them to reapply at lower wages. Twenty months later it was bankrupt. A Good-to-Great company ran the playbook to the letter - and the letter was the problem.
8 min
The Fall · Crisis & Reinvention
Circuit City Purged Its Best Sellers Twice — and the Autopsy Points Elsewhere
In 2007 Circuit City fired ~3,400 of its highest-paid associates to save on wages. Everyone calls it the fatal mistake. It wasn't even the first time - it had purged 3,900 commissioned sellers in a single day in 2003. The autopsy points elsewhere.
8 min
The Fall · Crisis & Reinvention
Circuit City Fired Its Best Salespeople to Save $110 Million. The Real Bill Was $3.4 Billion.
In March 2007 Circuit City fired 3,400 store employees for being paid too well, expecting $110 million in expense reductions that fiscal year and $140 million annually thereafter. Eighteen months later it was bankrupt. But the layoffs didn't kill the company - they just made visible a collapse that was already two years old.
8 min